In his prepared testimony before a U.S. House of Representatives panel reviewing the situation in Cuba, Noriega said that compared to just a few years ago -- "despite the brutally repressive nature" of the Cuban regime's tactics -- "there are now more opposition activities" occurring throughout the island nation.

Noriega, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said that although these activities are "in many ways limited and fragile, I believe that we will be able to look back at them years from now and see that they were indeed significant and the precursor to a Cuban future free of misery and repression."

The official said that during the previous week, he told a group of Cuban-American supporters of a free Cuba that each of them knows something that most of the rest of the world does not: "the transition [to democracy] in Cuba is already under way."

That transition is "happening in the hearts and minds of more and more Cubans every day," said Norigea. "They may not agree on everything -- and that's okay. But they do agree on this: the Cuban people must claim their God-given right to decide for themselves about how to make a better future for their children."

As the Cuban people "claim that right to write their own future," the United States "will stand with them," said Noriega, who testified before a joint oversight hearing of the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere and the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations.

Noriega said the Bush administration is actively engaged in helping the Cuban people create a democratic future for their country. For example, he said, the United States has provided $14.4 million -- of a proposed $29 million -- to support the development of civil society in Cuba and the "empowerment of the Cuban people in their efforts to effect positive change." Some $6 million, he said, has already been transferred to the U.S. Agency for International Development to dramatically expand that agency's work with civil society groups in Cuba.

The United States is also working with international partners to promote greater global involvement in helping Cuban civil society activists by channeling $8.4 million through a "new process designed to tap into the innovative ideas of democracy activists around the world and [to] help the Cuban people implement them on the island."

In addition, the United States has streamlined licensing requirements so that, for the first time ever, high-speed laptop computers can be delivered to Cuban civil society groups.

Noriega said another key component of the U.S. strategy on Cuba is to break the Cuban regime's information blockade on the Cuban people and "to bring a message of hope to the island."

Noriega said that to circumvent Cuban jamming of broadcast signals, Commando Solo -- a C-130 aircraft equipped with a powerful electronic transmission capability -- has flown on a regular basis, beaming U.S.-backed TV Marti signals to the island. According to Noriega, multisource information indicates that the TV Marti programs can be seen and heard at "an unprecedented level and through a wide swath" of Cuba.

The United States also provides moral support to Cuban dissidents by documenting and publicizing the cases of Cuba's "prisoners of conscience," said Noriega. U.S. officials, he said, follow more than 350 cases and regularly meet with the prisoners' families and other Cuban citizens to discuss human-rights concerns.

Noriega said another part of the U.S. strategy is an "aggressive effort" to identify and degrade Cuban-regime "revenue streams," such as tourism, which he said has replaced sugar exports as Cuba's main foreign-exchange earner.

"We want to deny resources" that the Cuban regime uses to "finance its repressive apparatus that keeps the Cuban people in ideological bondage," said Noriega.

In sum, the United States is providing "unprecedented, robust, and active support to courageous Cubans daring to think and act independently of the regime so that they can succeed in realizing their dreams," Noriega said.